The Broke Division
August 27th, 2019
The only thing broke about the NFC South is the Bucs. But when it comes to finances, every team in the NFC South is jammed against the salary cap.
Albert Breer of theMMQB.com got a hold of an internal report within the NFL’s Manhattan offices that documents how much cap space is available for each team currently. No surprise the Bucs are among the teams with the fewest dollars to play with.
What did surprise Joe is that the Bucs have company in their own division. Per this report, the Dixie Chicks are in the worst salary cap hell with only a cushion of $3.4 million. The Bucs are at $4.3 million below the cap.
The difference? The Dixie Chicks are three years removed from a Super Bowl season, two years removed from a playoff season and many expect them to contend once again for a playoff berth. The Bucs? Not so much.
Coming in at Nos. 9 and 10 are the Stinking Panthers and the Saints. Those two teams $5.9 million and $7.5 million below the cap, respectively.
What does all this tell Joe? It’s expensive to have a quarterback.
Also, Bucs fans like to holler about how this team has lost 22 games the past two seasons yet can barely buy a pot to urinate in because they are in such salary cap hell. Bucs fans should stomp their feet about this, it’s outrageous!
You know what’s worse? Having the worst team in the NFL and being jammed by the salary cap.
The Cardinals, which had the No. 1 overall pick last year, have the fourth-least amount of space under the cap at $4.7 million. And their No. 1 overall pick of a quarterback is on the first year of his rookie contract!
Don’t you almost have to try to be that bad yet have so little cash to play with? Doesn’t that actually take effort? Man!
(Hat tip @javiersp15 on the phrase “Broke Division.”)
And per the same report, the teams with the least cap space this AM, 5 days from the cutdown.
1) Falcons $3.4M
2) Bucs $4.3M
3) Broncos $4.4M
4) Cardinals $4.7M
5) Vikings $4.7M
6) Steelers $4.9M
7) Giants $5.5M
8) Rams $5.6M
9) Panthers $5.9M
10) Saints $7.5M— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) August 27, 2019
August 27th, 2019 at 3:25 pm
I wouldn’t care if we had something to show for it… beyond back-to-back 5-11 records. Doesn’t help when you overpay an inconsistent but usually-healthy left tackle either…
Lots of big money decisions coming up after this season.
August 27th, 2019 at 3:36 pm
Falcons window is just about closed. Especially if they pay Julio again. Not sure how they’ll even begin to afford that.
August 27th, 2019 at 3:38 pm
The Bucs don’t give signing bonuses – this allows them to move on from contracts generally after the first year or two, without cap hits. The downside is they pay more, generally up front, for those contracts. The idea is to give flexibility down the road if we need it. This was done because of Gruden’s fake news about having to let Lynch and Sapp go over salary cap concerns. It was a lie in order to try to blame the outgoing Rich McKay for Gruden “having” to make hard decisions (Gruden, as anyone with a brain knows, wanted to win without Dungy’s team – something he didn’t do). In any case right now the team isn’t in salary cap hell, they can easily create money by restricting some deals – but you want to save that for when the team is one or two players away. That’s the waiting game the team has been in since the mid-2000s – that they have a great system in place, but the team hasn’t been good enough to pull the trigger.
If the team was to go say 10-6 this year, then next year you’d see the Bucs making big moves in free agency (or via trades) and people will be asking how they can afford it. Easy, restructure some deals, give some signing bonuses, you spread those over 5 years or so and create a ton of money up front. That starts a clock where everything will eventually implode, and that’s why you have to wait until you think you’re close.
Anywho, I’m a strong believer in only loser teams care about the cap. Look at Dallas, everyone said they were going to be in salary cap hell a few years ago, and it never happened, they kept on winning – even if they haven’t won the SB. Look at the Lightning, sure, different sport, but same concept, they figure out ways to work the cap, shift things around, string things along. That should be concept in general, but since the Bucs haven’t been close, it’s hard to blame them for just biding their time as one or two players isn’t going to make them a SB contender.
August 27th, 2019 at 3:39 pm
Jesus, that was longer than I thought. Feel free to ZZZZZzzzz me on that one, it’s deserved.
August 27th, 2019 at 3:45 pm
imo, the difference is that those top5 teams drafted well and developed their players so they didnt have to give up on a first or second round pick and overpay in FA…..
luckily, we finally have a staff that can develop the players that are drafted…..
GO BUCS!!!!!
August 27th, 2019 at 3:54 pm
Damn Rod/ you got on a roll dog.
I’d like to say I finished it, but…
August 27th, 2019 at 3:59 pm
Remind me why we extended Jason L? Good read Joe
August 27th, 2019 at 4:01 pm
A wise man once said there no such thing as coincidences…. Licht came from…..Arizona…..
August 27th, 2019 at 4:09 pm
Years of poor HC hires, incompetent OC and DC, inadequate draft picks and over paying overrated players all stem from poor management…
The other 3 are viewed as winners having made the playoffs, Super Bowl appearances and even MVP honors in recent years…
August 27th, 2019 at 4:11 pm
jason Licht and Steve Keim are indistinguishable from each other. Cardinals East indeed
August 27th, 2019 at 4:16 pm
Do you really believe that Gruden won with Dungy’s team?
If you believe Gruden won with Dungy’s team, then why couldn’t Dungy win with Dungy’s team?
August 27th, 2019 at 4:27 pm
We have $15mil invested in a player who isn’t playing and a slew of money invested in players that don’t play that well……
We are getting out cheap on many skill positions……like TE (except Brate)…..RB, WR (except ME13)…..& Jameis isn’t that expensive as far as QBs go.
Our cap problem comes from an overpaid under performing Oline, Dline….
It’s hard to see where all the money is went….
August 27th, 2019 at 4:28 pm
It’s hard to see where the money went……
August 27th, 2019 at 4:32 pm
The question I think Bucs fans are afraid to face is what happens if Bruce Arians doesn’t work out? If this whole damn thing blows up in the glazers’s faces?
How many times do Bucs fans have to be scammed before we realize that the string of bad coaches and GM’s stems from ownership?
August 27th, 2019 at 4:40 pm
DRome
No reason to waste your time with this one.
Montes defense carried Dungy and Gruden. It wasn’t Dungys team anymore. He was fired. And without Gruden, we don’t beat the Eagles or Raiders in playoffs and SB.
Put that dungys team BS to rest. No reason to give credit where it ain’t due.
August 27th, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Joe
“The only thing broke about the NFC South is the Bucs.”
What the hell Joe? You sound like tmax or Kobe Faker. We have a great new coaching staff and a defense that looks super solid in our 2-1 going into our 4th PS game and we’re minus Vita Vea, LVD, JPP. Justin Evans is finally returning to the field. Sounding like BSPN if you don’t think something is going to change (possibly large) on the oline before game one.
August 27th, 2019 at 5:14 pm
Trade Jw3 and his $20.922.000 that is the 12th higest paid qb for 2019 and get back draft picks from Indy!!!!!!!!!!!
#trade_JW#_Indy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2019 will reveal answers to the sheep, that the “real” fans already know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 27th, 2019 at 5:32 pm
Yes sir/ma’am we have our wonderful GM to thank for the state of the Bucs right now. Let’s dump a ton of cash at the WORST OLine and D line in the NFL and totally ignore other needs. Yes sir THAT should fix the problem. Damn I’m a genius!
August 27th, 2019 at 5:45 pm
over/under Bucs wins in 2019: 4 1/2
August 27th, 2019 at 5:53 pm
Pittshore
“Remind me why we extended Jason L? Good read Joe”
-Best receiving corp
-Only person that could get BA and this awesome looking new coaching staff.
-Great drafter: Mike Evans, Marpet, Vea, a bunch of young db that are looking boss in Bowels defense, Chris Godwin, Brate, Hump, P.Barber, Whitehead, Beckwith(very sad) See what Devin White can do.
-Pulled off a JPP trade for a third round pick.
-Picked up Nassib out of the gutter.
-Tanner Hudson looks like he could be Brate 2.0
-Fitzmagic was a great backup and I thought Griffen looked great last PS along with this one.
Dumba$$ sheep think Licht is the only one that makes decisions with players and money. No clue how much the idiotic baby glazers and terrible coaches have on players.
August 27th, 2019 at 6:15 pm
Rod…good read…but it almost leads one to believe the Bucs are smart.
They’re not smart…and by “Bucs” I mean glazers. The team is horrible and has been since Malcolm retired.
I firmly believe the Bucs will always suck. There is no hope of respectability for this team in our lifetimes. Period
August 27th, 2019 at 6:19 pm
Let this be the Bucs epitaph
August 27th, 2019 at 6:32 pm
Rod Munch, you absolutely nailed it. That is exactly why I kept saying during the off season that the cap situation was not as bad as people thought, and that they could easily free up cap if the needed to. Next year will not be an issue.
If they get a winning team together, Jason Licht has structured things so that we can keep it together by converting some bonuses and cutting/trading some players we don’t need.
August 27th, 2019 at 6:35 pm
Howard Cosell Says:
“The team is horrible and has been since Malcolm retired.
I firmly believe the Bucs will always suck.”
I’m going to respectfully disagree. The offense has been very watchable over recent years.
Had kicking been good and defense been at least average, things would have different on the wins and losses.
And apparently, those things are in the midst of getting fixed…hopefully.
If you’re a Bucs fan, as hard as it has been, don’t give up. Good things will come.
August 27th, 2019 at 6:53 pm
By offense being watchable you mean Winston is entertaining.
I’ll agree with that. I just wish it was more because of TDs and less because of wacky Ints. That said Howard likes Winston.
Winston made t m a x ‘s list of real football players on the Bucs Lol.
That…is a high honor
Lets hope Winston doesn’t become yet another NFL career loser because of his unfortunate association with the Bucs.
Not that I agree with everything Voldemort (The Unspeakable One) says but most of the time he’s spot on
August 27th, 2019 at 7:15 pm
Thankfully we have been managing the future cap relatively well – next year we jump to 9th in space available and that is based on the same cap figure as this year (overthecap.com)
https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/
August 27th, 2019 at 8:01 pm
Who cares? I don’t pay their salary. Time to win – regardless of your cap space.
August 28th, 2019 at 6:49 am
You think it’s bad now wait until we sign Jameis.
August 28th, 2019 at 11:08 am
The amount of different usernames some of you use is ridiculous.